The present invention relates to a multifunction timepiece comprising a first and a second stepping motor, said first motor driving the seconds hand and said second motor driving other display elements, electronic circuits delivering time base signals and control signals of said first and second motors and control elements.
In a conventional electronic timepiece with analog display, the stepping motor normally drives simultaneously all display elements, that is the seconds, minutes and hours hands. Consequently the movements of these hands are linked by fixed gear ratios which do not permit to dissociate the movement of one of the hands relatively to the one of the other hands, however with the exception of the movement of the seconds hand with respect to the one of the minutes and hours hands during the operation of setting of the timepiece.
On the contrary, in an electronic timepiece comprising two motors controled independently and driving separately the seconds hand on the one hand and the minutes and hours hands on the other hand, the movement of the seconds hand is no more rigidly linked to the one of the other hands so that the seconds hand can be utilized independently of the other hands without disturbing the display of the hour and the minute.
In a multifunction timepiece, it is e.g. particularly useful to have means for identifying the functions to be controlled, or in other words, to identify by an adequate indication the function which is selected.
It is an object of the present invention to realize an electronic timepiece in which the seconds hand may be utilized for indicating, in addition of the seconds, other informations different of the seconds of the real time.